


Ghosts of Christmas Loved Ones

by Moonbeam (luvsbitca)



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - A Christmas Carol Fusion, Inspired by A Christmas Carol, Laura Hale is a ghost, M/M, who is still going to kick Derek's silly butt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2016-01-03
Packaged: 2018-05-09 00:18:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,478
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5518385
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/luvsbitca/pseuds/Moonbeam
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Derek is visited by the ghost of three people on Christmas Eve hoping to encourage him to change his life.<br/>Because everyone needs to write a version of A Christmas Carol and this is my Derek-centric one.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Laura

**Author's Note:**

> **Disclaimer:** I own nothing.  
>  I try and write a Christmas story every year and I was a bit busy this year so this one's late. And won't be finished until Boxing Day. For spaghettitacos who is unfortunately sick for Christmas.

**Ghosts of Christmas Loved Ones  
** by Moonbeam

**Laura**

Derek woke with a start – something wasn't right. He froze as soon as he was awake, his hearing stretching as far as possible to try and work out what, exactly, had woken him. He widened his nostrils slowly, breathing deeply to try and smell what was different but there was nothing.

Someone started laughing and Derek's entire body twitched; he knew that laugh but it was impossible.

"Oh, wolfie, you're so obvious."

Derek's heart broke as he opened his eyes. He knew it was a dream – it had to be a dream. In the darkness he could see her smiling down at him – mouth stretched wide and her teeth white in the moonlight.

"Laura?" Derek said, sitting up slowly.

"Hey brother," she said, walking over and sitting on the bed. "I have to say this place is pathetic."

Derek looked around his bedroom and saw it suddenly through Laura's eyes. Even when they had been constantly moving after the fire she had tried to make places feel like home. Then when they had settled in New York she had decorated their little apartment with glee. She would be disgusted by the bare room and the bare apartment beyond.

"Laura?" Derek asked again, staring up at her.

"Oh, Derek," she said, reaching out and wrapping her hand around his wrist.

Derek jerked back from her ice cold hand.

Laura grimaced. "Sorry, wolfie, it's one of the downsides of being dead."

Derek's chest constricted at the old nickname and then the reminder that she was gone.

Laura sighed at him. "You are such a guilt bug. Are you still blaming yourself for all of this?"

"If I hadn't killed Paige, Kate wouldn't have come after us, the family wouldn't be dead, Peter would only be _that_ vaguely sociopathic uncle, you would be alive, and-"

"You are such an idiot," she told him. "You're right; Kate wouldn't have come after us then. Would you like to see what would have happened?"

Derek frowned at her.

"Mum, Dad, Nana, Grandad, and the rest of the family have been petitioning to be able to come and visit you for years. We finally got through to them because we got some help this year."

"What?"

"I'm dead," Laura said slowly.

"I know," Derek growled out.

"And it's okay," she said. "Now, listen to me. There is something else beyond this world and your whole family is watching you be miserable and shut everyone out of your life. I thought you were letting the guilt go back in New York, that's the only reason I came back home without you and then Uncle Peter…"

"He-" Derek said, starting to offer her excuses he only partially believed.

Laura waved a hand. "I've forgiven him," then she smirked evilly. "But, I might have visited him on the way to you tonight."

"This is just a dream."

Laura looked down at his hands. "What did Stiles tell you about dreams?"

Derek looked down at his fingers – five on either hand. His stomach clenched and Derek reached out to grab onto Laura only for his hand to slice through her arm and leg – landing on the bed below.

Laura grimaced. "I'm a ghost, wolfie."

"You touched me," Derek said.

"Yeah, but that's part of the deal. I can touch you, you can't touch me."

"What deal?"

"We've been keeping an eye on you Derek and you're not happy…or living your life."

"I'm alive."

Laura rolled her eyes roughly. "I love you, Derek, but you're hiding from life. So, our pack…with some help, have been working to visit you and here I am."

"To tell me I'm living my life wrong?"

"I wouldn't be a good big sister if I didn't tell you when you're acting like an idiot. Now I only have an hour."

"What?"

"I have an hour, then someone else will come to show you something at 1am, and another at 2am. Then it's up to you whether you change things."

"Like Scrooge?"

Laura smiled. "That is why there are now rules – though, personally, I think they went to Dickens just so that no one would believe people if they told them they were visited by a ghost and shown things from your life."

"So, we start with past?" Derek asked, climbing out of bed.

"That's a total literary device. You get to choose two things you see and the last person will show you something they think you need to see."

"Who is coming?"

"That's a secret."

"Laura."

"A secret, now put on some clothes – we're going somewhere cold."

"I thought I got to choose."

"No, this time I choose."

Derek nodded and got dressed and then Laura reached out and he felt like someone had hooked his belly button and yanked him back as soon as her hand held his. As quickly as the feeling came it disappeared. They were standing outside of a house – one that Derek did not recognise.

"Where are we?"

"The absolute best thing about this," Laura said, walking forward, "is that we can walk through walls."

They walked into the house and Derek saw a Christmas tree with a small child shaking gifts. The girl, probably about five, with long red hair and pyjamas too long in the leg methodically moved around the tree checking gifts.

"Who is she?" Derek whispered.

Laura shrugged. "I'm not telling you anything."

Derek growled at her and the little girl froze, pulling her head from under the tree and looking around the room.

"She shouldn't be able to hear us," Laura said.

The girl pulled herself out from the tree and rushed over to hide behind the couch. A moment later Derek walked into the room – a different Derek. The man that had walked in was Derek but older, lines around his eyes and a little grey in his hair.

"Amerie Rose," other-Derek said, walking directly over to the couch and looking behind where the little girl laughed.

"I just wanted to see what Santa brought me, Papa."

Derek froze, then turned to look at Laura. She just smiled at him brightly.

"I'm not having children," Derek hissed fiercely.

"You always wanted your own family," Laura said.

"And then I got my one killed."

Laura slapped him around the back of the head and it was like a horribly icy blast of wind cutting into his skin.

Derek watched other-Derek scoop the small girl into his arms. He pressed a kiss to her forehead and started walking her up the stairs. Derek followed without really thinking about it. They walked up the stairs and down a hallway where the other-Derek and the girl slipped into a room and Derek stopped at the doorway. The room was brightly green, covered in butterflies with a picture of Derek's wolf on one wall.

"I want a story, Papa," the girl said.

"You got a story the last time I put you to bed," other-Derek told her, tucking the bed clothes around the small girl.

"But I can't possibly sleep without a story," the girl said, looking up at other-Derek with wide honey-coloured eyes.

"If you don't go to sleep then Santa can't come and give you any presents."

The girl sighed dramatically and reached out to grab a small blanket with a head and she tucked it under her chin. "Can I have a song then…please?"

The other-Derek sighed unconvincingly and rested his hand on the girl's tummy. "Only if you close your eyes."

She nodded and closed her eyes, wrapping her arms around other-Derek's arm.

 _"Hush, little baby, don't you cry._  
Papa's gonna buy you a mockingbird.  
And if that mockingbird won't sing,  
Papa's gonna buy you a diamond ring.  
And if that diamond ring turns brass,  
Papa's gonna buy you a looking glass.  
And if that looking glass gets broke,  
Papa's gonna buy you a billy goat.  
And if that billy goat won't pull,  
Papa's gonna buy you a cart and bull.  
And if that cart and bull turn over,  
Papa's gonna buy you a dog named Rover.  
And if that dog named Rover won't bark  
Papa's gonna buy you a horse and cart.  
And if that horse and cart fall down,  
You'll still be the sweetest little baby in town."

"Goodnight, Papa," the girl said.

Other-Derek leaned over and kissed the little girl on the head before walking out of the room. Laura immediately started following him and Derek had no choice but to follow her. They walked down the hallway and into another bedroom where there was another man sitting on the floor surrounded by wrapping paper, wrapped and unwrapped gifts. Then the picture in front of them faded and Derek blinked to see his own bedroom in front of him.

"What?" Derek asked, turning to look at Laura.

She shrugged. "We don't want you to know too much."

"Who was he?"

Laura smiled. "Someone who you could build a life and a family with and you already know who you want it to be."

Derek shook his head – refusing to give name to the person he knew she was talking about. "So what? I'm supposed to just go out and date him?"

"No."

Derek frowned at her.

"You're in no fit state to be a good partner to anyone, Derek."

"Pardon?"

"You growl at everyone, you still blame yourself for everything that happened to all of us even the things that have nothing to do with you. You need to decide what you want from your life. You could have what we saw – a life, a family, kids who wake you up on Christmas morning and who you can teach to be werewolves. You are miserable and you can't take that kind of miserable into a relationship. You need to decide if you want to be guilty and angry, distrustful and alienating for the rest of your life or if you want something different from your life and if you do then go out and make the changes you need to, to find someone to love."

"I don't-"

Laura's eyes flashed at him. "If you are about to offer anything that's close to _I don't deserve_ or _Everything I love dies_ I will make sure I'm able to cause you no end of supernatural pain and I will work out a way to visit Peter and make him do my bidding."

Derek bit his tongue – Laura and Peter had always been a formidable team. They had been closer than Derek was to Peter and he knew that his uncle would happily join in with Laura's plan even from beyond the grave.

She threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck. It was like taking an ice cold shower or jumping into the lake in the dead of winter but Derek tentatively wrapped his arms around her too until he knew that he could in fact touch her then he held onto her tightly. They held onto one another for a long time until Derek started shivering though he still didn't let her go.

"I love you so much, baby brother," she said. He knew she was about to leave but he didn't want to let her go. "And you deserve to be happy."

"I'm so sorry," Derek told her, knowing she was going to be angry with him.

"You didn't do anything wrong."

"I should have been there for you."

Laura pulled back and pressed a kiss to Derek's eyebrow. "Then we'd have both died – you have no idea how feral he was. It was worse even than when you dealt with him."

"You shouldn't have died alone."

"It's okay, because then you were able to come and save Beacon Hills from Uncle Peter."

Derek could see her fading in front of him so he tried to hold on tighter.

"I love you, Derek," Laura said again. "Merry Christmas."

She disappeared from in front of him and Derek slumped down onto his bed. The exhaustion came over him suddenly and he only had enough strength to crawl the rest of the way up the bed before the world went dark.

**TBC**


	2. Grandpop

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It will be Christmas Day for another 21 minutes here so MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!   
> I wasn't sure if I should do this chapter as it is but it was what the muse demanded. I promise it will get happier.

**Grandpop**

Derek was shaken awake, a cold hand on his shoulder. He opened his eyes, remembering the vivid dream he'd had, to see his grandfather. Derek shot up in bed with wide eyes.

His grandpop smiled brightly at him. "Hello, little pup."

"Pop?"

If there was anyone in his whole family that Derek had been closer to than anyone else it was his grandpop – his mother's father. Pop had been the alpha of their pack before he died when Derek was nine. Pop loved all of his grandchildren but he and Derek had always spent more time together than any of his siblings. Derek had struggled to control his shift when he'd been young and his grandpop had spent a lot of time with him helping him control his wolf. Losing his grandfather had been the single worst thing that had ever happened to him…until Paige, until Kate. He knew he couldn't reach out and touch his pop but he desperately wanted to.

His grandpop seemed to read his mind, just like he used to when Derek was a boy, and pulled Derek into a frigidly cold hug. Derek wrapped his arms around his grandfather and, though he couldn't smell it, he remembered that specific smell of wood chips and vanilla that had always clung to him.

"I missed you," Derek said, clinging a little more tightly.

"I've been keeping an eye on you, my little pup."

Derek thought about all of the terrible things he would have had to watch happen.

"I'm sorry."

He felt the icy blast of his Pop's lips pressing to his hairline like he had when Derek had been little and Derek felt like crying. He took a deep, shuddering breath and forced the instinct down.

"There isn't anything weak in crying," Pop said, pulling away.

Derek shook his head. "If I start I might never stop."

"That's one of the reasons that you need to let your guilt go, little pup," Pop said. "Kate wasn't your fault. And you have a pack standing in front of you needing your support and a man who would love you if you just forgive yourself and learn to love yourself again."

Derek nodded, looking away from his Pop's eyes.

"What do you want to see?" Pop asked, letting the conversation rest.

Derek smiled, completely sure about what he wanted to see. "I want to see our family if Paige hadn't have died."

His grandpop's eyes turned sad. "I wish you hadn't asked to see that."

"Why?"

Grandpop reached out and grabbed Derek's hand. Then they were standing in the middle of the cemetery – staring at a spread of headstones and sitting in front of one, hunched over with his shoulders shaking, was a man. Derek looked around him but this was not where his family was buried – he started walking towards the figure on the grass. He stopped when he saw the name _Talia Hale_ but the dates were wrong – 25th December 2020. He looked at the next headstone _Michael Hale_ , his father, with the same date of death. Derek rushed through the stones – Cora, Peter, and then a list of names he didn't recognise all with the last name Hale and the same date of birth. Then he saw Laura's name – _Laura Hale, Beloved daughter, wife, mother, and sister._ Derek froze – wife, mother. He looked back at the previous headstones and worked out the ages – nine, four, one, and he knew without his grandpop having to tell him that they were her children. His knees gave out on him and he dropped down into a kneel in front of the gravestone.

"I didn't want you to ask for this," Pop said, resting an ice-cold hand on his shoulder.

"What happened?"

"That's you," Pop said instead, and Derek looked up at the other man in the cemetery.

It didn't look anything like himself to Derek – the other man had scraggly grey hair, and he seemed to be smaller than Derek thought he could be. Derek forced himself up and started walking towards the other man, noting names of gravestones as he went – _Isaac Lahey, Allison Argent, Scott McCall, Melissa McCall, Kira Yukimura, Vernon Boyd, Danny Māhealani-Whittemore, Jackson Whittemore-Māhealani, Sabrina, Josh and Thomas Māhealani-Whittemore…_

"They flipped a coin over whose name would go first for their kids – all adopted," Pop offered.

"What happened?"

Derek stopped, staring down at one of the gravestones – _Amerie Rose Stilinski-Hale,_ and he thought back to the vision that Laura had shown him of the little girl with the same name searching for presents under the tree. Derek wanted to stop but he kept walking, noting the name on the next gravestone – the one where the other Derek was slumped, _Przemysław 'Stiles' Stilinski-Hale_ , and Derek couldn't stop his eyes from slipping over the other-Derek's shoulders and catching sight of the next headstone – _Logan Stilinski-Hale_ only two years old from the dates on the headstone.

Derek turned around and looked at his grandpop. "What happened?"

"Kate."

"How?"

"She heard about this wolf pack in Beacon Hills," Pop started. "Came to town to hunt them down. She tried to seduce you when she came to town but you weren't interested because-"

"Because of Stiles."

"Because of Stiles," Pop confirmed. "She became obsessed with you, with the pack, and then she got her hooks into Peter. My beautiful son has always been a slave to his pride and belief in the fact he's the smartest in any room. Kate twisted him beautifully."

"Peter?"

"She is a parasite, Derek, she used you in your world, but here she found the member of the pack who was the most vulnerable and used him instead."

"Why didn't I die?"

"Stiles had sent you out for ice. It was Christmas day, and the whole pack was there, all of the children."

"My children?"

Pop nodded. "Yes."

"They all burned…" Derek muttered to himself, looking at the other Derek and wondering how he'd ever survived.

"Sam Stilinski had been called into work," Pop explained. "He was going to come to the house for dinner that night. But they were all dead by the time you got home. You ran into the fire trying to save them – you had to break down a wall but by then you mother was dead and you were an alpha. You dragged them from the house but they were all dead and you were-"

Pop stopped and Derek inhaled sharply when the other-Derek turned around and looked at his daughter's grave. Other-Derek's face was burned – covered in scars like Peter had been after the first fire. He was missing the hair from the side of his head, and what hair he still had was silver-white. One of the other man's eyes was permanently red while his other was the same green that Derek saw in the mirror but they were both hollow.

"He lost everyone."

"He lost everyone," Pop agreed.

"What happened to Kate?"

"He killed her, turned feral when he couldn't make Amerie, Logan, or Stiles wake. He hunted her down and ripped her apart."

"Good."

"Sam covered for him," Pop explained. "Then he hunted down everyone else who had been involved."

"He should have let them die," Derek said.

"The sheriff was worried that you'd never come back if he let you kill them. He'd lost every member of his family but you and he couldn't face losing you as well."

Derek looked around them at the gravestones – all of them separated from the rest of the cemetery and his chest ached for the number of people that the other him lost. Derek had lost five people in his fire and there were at least five times that many headstones surrounding him. He spotted someone coming towards them from the road. Derek watched the Sheriff approach and couldn't process how much the man had aged – he looked frail. The sheriff stopped next to other-Derek and rested his hand on the werewolf's shoulder.

"They convicted Harris," the Sheriff said quietly.

Other-Derek threw back his head and howled at the blue sky. The sound ripped into Derek's chest.

"Come on," the Sheriff said. "Let's go home."

Other-Derek shook his head.

"Derek, it's time to go home – come on. We'll come back tomorrow."

The sheriff helped other-Derek stand up and they left the cemetery together – other-Derek limping as he walked next to the Sheriff.

"Neither of them live past the end of the year," Pop said in a quiet voice.

Derek reached out and trailed his finger along the letters of Stiles' name.

"So, no matter what happens I end up alone with all of my pack dead?"

Pop cuffed him around the ear. "No, in every universe Kate comes after our family. Not because of you but because that is what she does. Our families are intertwined at this place and time in history."

"So, no matter what I do I can't save them?"

Pop shook his head. "It's all about little decisions, if Stiles had have gone to collect the ice he would be the person who lost everything."

Derek froze.

"I could show you that if you wanted to," Pop continued. "I could show you that man you care about broken and sitting on your grave mourning your children and plotting revenge. Would that be better?"

"No."

"Loss like this is horrific but we need to think about what comes next."

"We die, the Sheriff and I die."

"Yes, here that's what happens. But in your life," Pop reached out and wrapped his hand around Derek's wrist, taking them back to Derek's bedroom. "In this life you, Laura, and Cora survive. Peter turns Scott, and you meet Stiles that way. You save the town from Peter – you save my Peter, and you stop the alpha pack, you save Jackson, you build a new pack, and that new pack is strong enough to stop the Argents from coming back again. You gain the trust of Chris Argent. You do amazing things. And it is terrible that so many had to die, but it is not just about the terrible things that happened to your family – it's about what happens because of them."

"What happens?" Derek asked.

"Little pup, I can only show you one thing. And I didn't want to show you what we saw. We all hoped you'd ask to see something different. Anything else really."

"Like what?"

Pop smiled. "Like one of those wonderful Christmases we had when I was alive. I'm so sorry I had to show you that."

"I asked for it," Derek said quietly.

"I have to go soon," Pop said. He cupped Derek's face in his large, cold hands, and stared at him intently. "I am proud of you, I have always been proud of you, little pup."

Derek felt his eyes prickle again.

"Goodbye, Derek," Pop said, smiling softly as he faded away.

Derek wasn't surprised by the exhaustion this time but he hadn't expected how heartbroken he would be over this visit as he crawled back into bed and the darkness took him again.

**TBC**


	3. Stranger

**Stranger**

Derek woke with a start, already half turned, to see someone standing at his bedside staring at him. She didn't flinch away from him, just stared him down with familiar eyes.

"Who are you?" Derek demanded, moving to the other side of the bed and standing there to keep the bed between them.

"I'm your third visitor," she told him, one eyebrow quirked and her entire expression screaming that she was uninterested in dealing with his bullshit.

"I don't know you."

"No, but I know you."

"Why would you be visiting me, trying to help me, if you don't know me?"

The woman smiled self-deprecatingly. "I have more than a little interest in your decisions, Derek Hale."

"Why?"

She shook her head. "What do you wish to see?"

"I don't know," Derek told her honestly, unsure why he would be so honest with a strange ghost in his bedroom at 2am on Christmas morning.

"Then maybe you are capable of learning from your mistakes after all."

Derek frowned at her.

"I can offer a suggestion."

Derek nodded. "What do you think I should see?"

"Look not to your future," she said cryptically, "Look beyond yourself."

"That isn't a suggestion."

"I have rules that I must follow."

"I want to see what you wish to show me," Derek said, feeling like his lips were moving without his conscious thought.

She smiled and snapped her fingers, immediately he felt the tug at his naval and the world around him changed suddenly. He looked around at the trees surrounding him – he recognised the outcropping of rocks to their left and he could see the lake through the trees to the right.

"Why did you bring me here?"

The woman pointed behind Derek and he turned to see what she was pointing at. In the distance he could see two wolves running towards him. Even from where he stood he could see that one of them was him but he had no way of knowing who the red-furred cub running at his side was – though he thought he would be able to guess at this point. The wolves kept bounding towards them and rushed straight past them and towards the lake.

The woman immediately turned to follow them, walking through the forest silently. Derek followed behind her catching sight of more people at the lake's edge. The air around them was obviously hot but Derek couldn't feel it. They walked past the tree line and Derek saw his wolf circling a man and a small child sitting on a picnic blanket. The man's back was to them but Derek knew it must be Stiles – he was the constant in each of these visions. From the last one he had to assume that the small child was Logan and the cub must be Amerie. She had thrown herself into the water and at the first splash the wolf immediately rushed in after her, circling her to keep her in the shallow water, his body between her and the deep, as they played.

The woman continued to walk towards Stiles and the small boy – redheaded like his sister and no more than two years old. Derek felt drawn not to the blanket but towards the water where other-Derek and the cub were still happily splashing. Derek watched the wolf thinking back to their cousins in South America and visiting them when he was younger. He remembered playing with them in the ocean the same way other-Derek played with his daughter. He wondered briefly how he and Stiles had gone about having children but he didn't suppose it would matter yet. The woman appeared suddenly at his side and clicked her fingers again and the world faded.

He had half turned to demand to know why it was over so quickly when he realised he wasn't actually back in his apartment.

"There is nothing to say we can only show you one thing – you asked to see what I wished to show you," the woman explained, walking them towards a house in the middle of the preserve.

Derek followed behind her. "No one else showed me more than one thing."

"You asked to see a very specific future with your grandfather and your sister wished to show you that particular night."

"And you?" Derek asked, passing through the wall of the house.

"I am showing you what you asked for," she said plainly walking into the large living room where Derek and Stiles were sitting on the couch in front of the Christmas tree.

Derek paused, it was the first time he had properly seen Stiles in any of these visions and Derek was taken back at how the other man would age – his face was still lean, covered in moles, wide laughing eyes still the same but he had deep lines at the edges of his mouth and Derek could see a faint scar running into his hairline at one temple. Other-Derek was older again than he had ever seen – more salt than pepper to his hair and skin around his eyes going to wrinkle instead of laugh lines.

"Why?" other-Derek said, peering at the tag on the gift. "Do you still insist on giving them gifts from Santa?"

Stiles smiled at the man sitting next to him. "Even after all these years and you still haven't worked out that Christmas is about magic?"

"They all know Santa isn't real."

Stiles turned to gasp at other-Derek. "How dare you?"

"Fine," Derek said, hitching himself up. "I'm going to go and get the things for their stockings then."

Derek looked across at the fire place – where there were six stockings hanging from the mantle: _Derek, Stiles, Amerie, Logan, Lucas,_ and _Sam_. This was the first time he had heard of a Lucas and he wondered if they had another child in this future. Derek looked over at the woman to ask her but she was sitting staring at Stiles and he didn't think she would appreciate being interrupted. Watching them made him feel that there was something…something just wasn't quite making sense to him.

Something moved on the edge of Derek's vision and he turned to see a girl – about thirteen with black hair and green eyes – looking like Laura reincarnated coming around the corner.

"Papa?"

"Amerie Rose," other-Derek said, coming back into the room. "Every year."

Amerie smiled at him but she didn't look at all like the little girl he had seen in Laura's vision. "I can't sleep."

"We are not letting you see what Santa brought you," Stiles said, walking through and pressing a kiss to the crown of her head.

Instead of arguing that she didn't believe in Santa like Derek expected she flushed. "That's not why I'm down here, Dad."

Stiles laughed. "Excuse me if I don't believe that."

Amerie turned wide eyes on Derek. "I just wanted something to drink."

"That didn't even work when you were five, Am," other-Derek said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Go back to bed."

She sighed but turned to walk up the stairs at the same moment that Derek heard fingers snap and the scene faded.

Derek blinked at the sudden sunlight in his eye. They were outside at the high school, standing off to the side with a sea of people seated in front of the main stage. Derek turned to look at the woman but she was still ignoring him, eyes on the crowd. Derek followed her eyes to see himself, gone completely silver now though not looking much older than the last time, sitting next to Stiles and two teenage boys – one dark haired and the other the spitting image of Stiles when Derek first met him, possibly a little younger. Sam, with more colour in his hair than other-Derek, was sitting on Derek's other side and they were all watching the stage as someone announced the valedictorian – Amerie Hale-Stilinski. The girl…though Derek thought woman would be more appropriate, who was walking across the stage had long red hair and looked so much more like the first Amerie that Derek had seen. He turned to look at the woman but she held up a hand before he could ask a question – all of her attention on what was happening in front of them.

They listened to her speech about her family – her fathers who loved her with a fierceness that she felt would carry her through life, her siblings, her grandfather, her 'extended family'. Then she talked about the attack that happened when she was a young girl and Derek froze. People coming after her family. How her family had protected her and how the strength of them gave her strength to look at every day as a gift that should be used to its full advantage. As soon as she was done Stiles was out of his seat clapping loudly, followed swiftly by the rest of the family.

Then the woman snapped her fingers and they were standing in a large room. The space was dominated by a table, around which sat any number of people. Standing at one end was Amerie – older still, edging towards thirty and again looking like Laura though Derek swore he could see his mother in her as well.

"My father was chased by hunters for years. His family was killed when he was sixteen by a hunter for the crime of being werewolves. Even as he tried to rebuild his life Kate Argent came back trying to kill him and everything he loved. You all agreed to come here and lay down a set of guidelines for peace between the old families – werewolf and hunter alike. Yet, you sit here and snipe at one another like children."

One of the men around the table stood and growled – red eyes flashing.

Amerie turned, allowing her eyes to flash back. "Red eyes don't scare me, Valjean. My godfather is a true alpha and I come from a longer line of werewolves than you. So sit down."

Valjean bared his teeth at her but Amerie met his with her own and stared him down until he sat.

"How is she an alpha?" Derek asked, almost to himself.

"She took mercy on a dying alpha that came to you for help. Neither you nor Stiles was there – away for your anniversary and she was there when he died packless. She is a much better alpha than you ever were."

Derek nodded. "That would not be hard."

"No."

"And she's brokering peace?"

"She and Stiles have spent years tracing all of the old families of hunters and wolves. They don't want what happened to your family to ever happen again. And she brokers peace between those families. Chris Argent helping her to lead the hunters back to their code."

Derek turned back to Amerie, talking to the room again but Derek couldn't quite hear was she was saying anymore. The room was fading around them.

The woman sighed and clicked her fingers; Derek's room filling his vision again.

"We ran out of time," she explained

Derek blinked at her. "I don't understand."

She looked at him questioningly. "What don't you understand?"

"Why didn't she look the same in each vision? Why could you show me so much? Who are you?"

"Little changes that come with choices. Some things are set – she is the outcome from the horror that you saw because she will make it so it doesn't happen again. But whether she is biologically you child or Stiles' is the flip of a coin."

Derek stared at the woman for a long moment – realisation coming to him slowly. He recognised the set of her mouth, and the shade of her hair. "You are Claudia Stilinski."

She nodded. "It took you much too long to work that out."

"Why are you here?"

She grabbed his shoulders tightly – cold seeping into his bones. "I left Stiles much too early and I can see how much you can hurt him – how desperately. I'm not here for you."

"You're here for him."

"Always," she said fiercely.

"He would be better off without me."

She shoved him away. "You have learned nothing." And with that she was gone.

Derek looked around the room expecting to see her but all he could see was his bedroom. He supposed her presence here tonight was her answer – she wouldn't have come if she believed Stiles was better off without him. His last thought before the exhaustion dragged him down was that this might have been an even worse first impression than being arrested for murder.

**TBC**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I told a fib - this won't be finished until the day after Boxing Day but there's only a little bit to go.


	4. Stiles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the delay, my internet went down when I was going to post, and then life got super busy. Enjoy!

**Stiles**

Derek woke slowly, sleep falling away from him like honey until he opened his eyes – suddenly awake as soon as sunlight reached his brain. Derek sat up and looked around the room but he was definitely alone. Derek felt surprisingly well rested for his upset night and he threw off the blankets. He walked to the bathroom and threw cold water on his face but it didn't make him feel any more settled so he stepped into an icy shower.

He was unsure if he could believe what he had dreamed or experienced the night before but under the cold water he knew that there was only one thing he could really do. So he climbed out of the shower, dressed warmly, and drove to the cemetery.

Derek knelt in front of his mother's grave and laid the handful of geraniums on the ground in front of the headstone – more in his hand for Laura and his Nana. His father's grave was to the left, his Pop's two rows behind him. This series of plots held nothing but Hales and one day Derek would be buried here too. Laura was at the end of this row, next to little Janey who had only been six when Kate had come after them.

Derek visited his whole family, sitting gingerly on his Grandpop's grave and wondering if the future that he'd been shown could possibly be real. He sat back against Laura's headstone and wondered aloud if he was simply, finally, going mad or if he had honestly been visited by ghosts the night before. When he was done with his family he intended to leave but his feet were taking him in another direction. He stopped in front of Claudia Stilinski's grave completely unsurprised that he'd found her grave so easily. There was a fresh bunch of daisies sitting on the grass – the petals brushing the word _mother_. And just like that, he knew where he needed to go for answers. He placed the last geranium he was holding – one he hadn't quite known why he wasn't placing on his Nana's grave, onto Claudia's grave, and turned to leave the cemetery.

When he was sitting in his car in front of the Stilinski house he realised how insane what he had to say, what he had to ask, was and couldn't force himself to get out of the car.

He couldn't leave either. He wanted to know what Stiles thought even if he didn't know how to ask for the other man's help. In the end, he didn't need to. There was a knock on his car window and Derek turned, eyes flashing, at the sudden noise. Stiles was standing outside of the car with a shy grin and a wave.

Derek sighed and pushed the car door open. He cocked his hip against the side of the car and looked at Stiles silently; trying to work out what to say.

"Merry Christmas, Derek."

"Merry Christmas."

"Is everything okay?"

Derek shook his head and Stiles took a step closer.

"Are you in danger?" Stiles asked, dropping his voice down to a low rumble.

Derek shook his head. "It isn't that. Something happened…or didn't happen."

Stiles frowned at him.

Derek rolled his shoulders, not all that sure how to even say what he wanted to.

"Whatever it is," Stiles said, watching Derek's movements carefully. "You know you can tell me…anything."

Derek nodded. "I do know that."

Stiles smiled at him, widely, and Derek's chest tightened at how please Stiles looked.

Derek metaphorically girded his loins and just spurted out what he'd come here to say. "Do you believe in an afterlife?"

Stiles gaped at him.

"I mean-"

"Yes," Stiles said, like he hadn't even heard Derek start to qualify his question. "I swear I've seen Mum since she died."

Derek nodded. "I'd never see anyone."

"What changed?"

Derek grimaced, knowing this would sound stupid. "I had these dreams last night."

"Dreams?"

"Where I had the right number of fingers and people came and visited me and then showed me things."

"What type of things?"

"What would have happened if Kate hadn't killed my family when I was sixteen."

Stiles reached out and rested a hand on Derek's forearm very gently as though he wasn't sure of the response he would receive. Derek had to admit that his reluctance was understandable. Derek wasn't sure how to show that he appreciated the touch so he just made a show of looking at it and then looking back up at Stiles with an expression as close to a smile as he could manage at the moment. Stiles' hand tightened on Derek's arm.

"Why do I get the feeling I don't want to know what they showed you."

Derek shook his head.

"She still came?"

Derek nodded.

"I'm sorry."

"Do you think it could have been real?"

"What else did they show you?"

"A possible future."

"Was it good?"

Derek felt his lips quirk. Stiles matched him with a goofy smile.

"I'm glad," Stiles told him quietly.

"But should I believe in the dream?"

"Did it feel like a dream?"

"I had ten fingers."

Stiles smirked.

"I don't believe in good things happening," Derek admitted quietly.

Stiles took a deep breath and nodded decisively as though Derek had just confirmed everything he had been thinking about Derek. "Here is what I think…"

Derek waited but Stiles' voice drifted off. Derek frowned at the other man.

"Would you like to stay for lunch? Melissa and Scott will be coming over – Dad's cooking up a storm in the kitchen. It'll be good – it's not the perfect picture of Christmas maybe but we have fun and there is going to be a lot of food."

Derek's mouth opened, ready to say no like he had the last time Stiles had asked but he thought of the dreams he'd had and found himself saying yes instead. Stiles beamed at him.

"Who visited you?" Stiles asked, tugging Derek gently towards the house.

"Laura, and my Grandpop, and…someone else."

Stiles frowned at him but didn't ask the obvious question. "What was their message to you?"

"How do you know they had a message?" Derek asked, confused.

Stiles shrugged. "A bit like Dickens, right?"

"Yeah."

Stiles shrugged.

"Why do you believe it?"

Stiles smiled. "That's what I do – I believe. I believed that Scott was a werewolf, I believed in Jackson being the kanima, I believe in my spark, I believe in you, I believe; it's my only superpower."

"Laura told me I needed to let go of my guilt. Then Pop showed me a future where Kate came when I was older and killed even more of my family."

"That makes sense."

"How does that make sense?"

Stiles stopped under the front verandah of the house and looked at him for a few long beats, then dropped his head sheepishly. "Her family keeps coming back to Beacon Hills and she keeps coming back to you. Did she use you in the future?"

Derek shook his head. "She couldn't."

"Because she's the problem; it was never your fault, it was her psychopathy."

"Should I even be telling you any of this?"

Stiles shrugged. "Don't tell me about the future you want."

Derek nodded. "I still survived…when she came, I was still the only one to survive."

Stiles' eyes immediately grew soft and sad and Derek's chest ached at the empathy. "Are you going to let go of your guilt and move on? That seems like it's the only real question. If you can't have faith in being happy or good things happening to you maybe all you really need to worry about is; can you help yourself move on and let go of all of that stuff?"

Derek blinked slowly – what Stiles offered him made so much more sense than any of the dreams he'd had the previous night – he could work on forgiving himself even if he never actually got to have Stiles, he could admit that Kate's dogged, and psychopathic, hate of him and his kind at least wasn't his fault. But, if he never quite let another stranger into his life like that again he wouldn't consider that too much of a price to pay. His pack attracted people enough for everyone.

"Come on," Stiles said, grabbing Derek's wrist. "Let's go inside – you can help me with the table."

Derek nodded and followed Stiles into the house.

Even as Derek sat down to lunch with Stiles, Scott, and their parents he couldn't hold onto quite what Amerie had looked like, or the name of the little boy he had never quite met. Stiles smiled at him brightly as he handed over the plate of steamed vegetables and Derek returned it, pushing those thoughts from his head. Maybe he wasn't supposed to remember everything – just enough so that he would make the changes he needed to, to have a better life.

**The End**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Obviously, Derek gets the future with Stiles and they live happily (for a majority) ever after.


End file.
